DISEASE AMONGST GROUSE. 237 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 



Disease amongst Grouse ; difficulty of assigning its cause Supply of Grouse 

 to Poulterers Netting game, legal and illegal Disguised Poachers 

 Game-Laws Preserves Criminality of Poachers Epidemics amongst 

 Hares, &c. Black Game Hybrids Woodpigeons Geese Sentinels. 



IT is difficult, I ought perhaps to say impossible, to understand 

 the cause and origin of what the Highland keepers call 

 " the disease " amongst grouse. For the last few years it has 

 in several districts almost swept away these birds ; so much 

 so that scarcely a young bird is to be found, and very few 

 old ones. Some persons assign one thing as the cause of this 

 and some another, all plausible, but all on investigation 

 equally unsatisfactory. One keeper will tell you that the 

 heather " is too short ; " another, that " it is too long ; " one, 

 that the hills have been too wet during the spring; and 

 another, that the weather was too dry : in fact, the most 

 experienced persons are all at fault. For my own part I 

 conceive that it is some epidemic which cuts off the birds 

 indiscriminately in wet and dry, cold and hot weather, 

 without reference to state of ground or climate. The worst 

 feature of the case is, that as yet nothing approaching: to a 

 cure or preventive has been discovered. I should be very 

 much inclined in a diseased district to shoot hard for a 

 season, instead of sparing the survivors ; and then to give the 

 grouse a year or two of entire rest and immunity from dog 

 and gun. If the hills are let to strangers from a distance 

 during a scarcity of this kind, it is natural to expect that, 

 having no interest in them beyond the season, and paying a 

 considerable rent, they will shoot as many birds as they can, 

 without thinking of the future ; and as in general the 

 grounds are each year let to new tenants, the same thing 

 will occur again and again until the birds are nearly 

 extinct. 



Luckily in favourable seasons and on good ground grouse 

 seem to grow and increase almost like the heather among 

 which they dwell, and the hills soon get stocked again. The 

 number of grouse sent to the markets in London, and in all 

 the large towns in England, from the beginning of August to 

 the end of the season, is perfectly astonishing ; and indeed 

 until March any quantity of grouse can be procured from 

 the poulterers and game dealers. Immense must be the 

 slaughter to afford this supply : the greatest portion are shot; 

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